Bis-maleimides are known to possess excellent thermal stability with no significant decomposition up to 350.degree.-400.degree., however, when cured, they produce a very brittle polymer. In addition, they possess only limited solubility in common organic solvents. Silicone imide compounds of various types are known in the art. For example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,364,808; 4,338,426; 4,139,547; 4,395,527; 4,011,279; 3,325,450; 4,472,565; 4,404,350; and 4,472,565. Silicone imide compounds have been disclosed as providing improved toughness and/or thermal properties over conventional silicones and as providing processing and curing advantages over ordinary polyimides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,888 discloses ethynyl terminated polyimide siloxanes which are formed by reaction of controlled molar ratios of aminophenylacetylene aromatic dianhydrides and diaminosiloxanes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,461 there are described compounds of the formula: ##STR2## where n=1-6. These compounds are formed by reacting amino terminated dimethylsiloxanes of 1-6 repeat units. The compounds are said to be useful as crosslinking agents in adhesive systems. These compounds, however, contain Si--O--C bonds which are known to be hydrolytically unstable.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,099 there are disclosed polyimide foams prepared by reaction of an organic tetracarboxylic acid ester with (a) a diamine of the formula: ##STR3## where R is a C.sub.2 to C.sub.6 alkylene group, R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each independently lower alkyl and n is an integer of 1-4, and (b) an aromatic diamine.